A lifelong passion

MR. PAGSI’S enthusiasm for teaching remains undiminished and he continues to inspire young minds.

For sure Ateneo de Manila High School and its Dulaang Sibol will never be the same after  Mr. Pagsi retires. But not to worry— retirement is not in the horizon for the 86-year-old teacher and stage director.

At the recent opening of The Many Faces of the Teacher (TMFT) exhibit at SM North Edsa, where he was the guest of honor, Mr. Pagsi said he would continue to teach “for as long as I can still think clearly.”

He said every student in his class was his tomorrow because he had invested in their lives.

Mr. Pagsi is Dr. Onofre Pagsanghan. Even the boys who never wandered into his class or stage at the Ateneo would call him that.

Mr. Pagsi acknowledged as his mentor Fr. John Delaney, SJ, who was the principal at Ateneo High before becoming the first chaplain of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice on the University of the Philippines campus.

Pagsanghan said that as a high school student, he had a great teacher in Delaney.

It was the good Jesuit who first asked him to give a thought to becoming a high school teacher.

As it happened, teaching has become Mr. Pagsi’s lifelong passion.

The TMFT exhibit highlighted the inspiring lives and stories of TMFT honorees. It is part of the Tribute to Teachers 2013 and National Teachers Month activities organized by the Bato Balani Foundation and Diwa Learning Systems.

The program, started in 2003, is an advocacy that extols the teaching profession by selecting role models who can inspire excellence among teachers.

Pagsanghan is one of the first honorees, along with Dr. Maria Teresa F. Calderon, Dr. Milagros D. Ibe and Dr. Josette T. Biko.

Thank you, Mr. Pagsi, for all that you’ve done for your students, for theater, for the

Ateneo, for education and other professions, for the country and for the future.

If you’ve ever been a student of Mr. Pagsi and want to thank him on World Teachers Day, you may write your message as a comment on the Mr. Pagsi post on the Inquirer.net Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/inquirerdotnet  or on https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/tag/learning. We’ll make sure the message gets to him.